Almost Home
by Chrmdpoet
Summary: Emma Swan met Regina Mills at the Almost Home Orphanage for children under the age of twelve when she was six years old and Regina was seven, and they didn't like one another very much at first.


**A/N: Written for one of my Two-Word Tumblr Prompts, using the words "First Kiss", and it ended up growing into a 2K+ word one-shot. So, here you go, and I hope you all enjoy. XO-Chrmdpoet**

Almost Home

Emma Swan met Regina Mills at the Almost Home Orphanage for children under the age of twelve when she was six years old and Regina was seven, and they didn't like one another very much at first. Regina was too quiet, too rigid. She liked rules way too much, and she tattled on Emma for making mud pies and then throwing them at the back of the orphanage. Emma totally hated her for at least a week after that.

Emma was too loud, too goofy, and far too much of a trouble-maker for Regina. Regina stayed away from her or spent her time spying on the blonde so that she could tell on her and get rewards while Emma was banned from play-time for a few days or more. She loathed the blonde every time those big green eyes glared in her direction.

One night, however, Emma woke up to the sounds of someone sniffling and crying. She slipped quietly from her bed, dragging her baby blanket behind her, and made her way through the rows of beds until she reached the source of the crying.

"Hey," Emma whispered, crouching down beside Regina's bed. "Why you crying?"

Regina's face scrunched. She scooted farther down in her bed and wiped at her eyes. "I'm sad," she whispered, because it seemed like Emma really wanted to know, but Regina was still wary of being tricked.

"How come?" Emma asked.

"I miss my Daddy," Regina whispered.

Emma stared at her, chewing on her bottom lip. "What happened to him?"

"He died."

"Oh," Emma muttered. "I never had a Daddy."

"Sorry," the little brunette said, frowning, and Emma shrugged her shoulders.

Then, without a word, the tiny blonde tucked her baby blanket onto Regina's bed and up under the brunette's chin. "This helps," she whispered, and Regina clutched it like a life raft.

"Thanks," she whispered and Emma shrugged again and padded back to her bed.

They were never able to hate one another again, and Regina never told on Emma for making mud pies again.

They did everything together after that, playing together and holding hands everywhere they went. They were inseparable.

When Regina was placed in a foster home six months later, Emma spent the entire night before her departure cuddled up in Regina's bed with her face pressed close to the brunette's. "I don't want you to go," she whispered, her nose nudging Regina's. "I'll miss you."

Regina wiped at her wet eyes. "Me too."

"Don't forget me, okay?" Emma cried, and Regina shook her head.

"I won't, Emma," she whispered. "Promise."

Emma kissed her lips, one big smack, and said, "You're my best friend."

Regina hugged her tight. "You're mine."

When Regina was pulled from her foster home a year later and brought back to the Almost Home Orphanage, Emma was gone.

* * *

><p>It was nearly three years later when they met again. Emma stood at the desk in the front hall of Almost Home as the social worker went about business with the orphanage director.<p>

"Emma?"

She whirled on the spot and froze when she saw a ten-year-old Regina leaning hesitantly against a nearby door frame and staring at her, wide-eyed.

Emma's eyes stung as she took off running and jumped on the brunette who caught her in a strong embrace. "I can't believe you're here!"

Regina squeezed her and let out a long sigh. "I can't believe _you're _here."

They pulled apart and stared at one another, grinning. "Missed you," Emma said, head ducking and cheeks tinting a soft pink as she scuffed the toe of her worn shoe against the tiled floor.

Regina bit her lip and smiled. "I missed you too."

They became inseparable once more, constantly finding themselves in trouble for staying up late talking and giggling and keeping the other kids awake. Regina still never told on Emma and even stood lookout for her when the blonde would sneak into the kitchen and steal snacks for them. They were best friends.

When Emma was sent to a new foster home, she squeezed Regina as tightly as possible and silently wished she would never have to let go. She used to dream for nothing more than a family but those dreams grew and changed and came to revolve entirely around Regina Mills. She just wanted more time with her.

Regina kissed Emma's cheek and watched her go.

Emma jumped from foster home to foster home after that and ended up in a new orphanage for older children when she hit thirteen and had nowhere to go. She cried as quietly as possible that first night, because the world seemed to have caved in on her.

Her last two foster families had been terrible. She had a dumb plaster cast on her left arm courtesy of her most recent foster father. She was back in an orphanage, and she still had no family. This time, she had no Regina Mills either.

No matter how much time passed, she never stopped thinking about Regina, and she never stopped missing her—the pretty girl with the beautiful brown hair and eyes, the girl who made her feel like so much more than some lost little orphan.

Emma had snuck a phone call to their old orphanage early one morning while at her last foster home and found out Regina had been adopted not too long after Emma's last stint there. Emma tried to be happy for Regina, but all she could think was that she would never see her again, and nothing hurt more than that.

* * *

><p>Emma eventually landed in another foster home and was quickly enrolled in a new public school closer to the family's neighborhood. She nearly fainted when she walked into her new English class, baggy jeans, jersey tee, and scuffed chucks, and saw a familiar brunette seated front and center.<p>

They gaped at one another and Emma blurted, "Regina?"

Regina's mouth moved wordlessly as she stared at Emma and Emma stared right back at her, taking in Regina's brand-name clothing and rapidly developing body and those eyes that never stopped decorating Emma's dreams, and whoa. Regina must have been adopted by a fairly well-off family.

"Oh, do you two know each other?" the teacher asked, but Emma was already moving.

She crossed the room in three great strides and pulled Regina up from behind her desk and into her arms. They laughed as they held one another and disregarded all the eyes they could feel staring at them from all angles of the room.

When the teacher cleared her throat and they were forced to part, Emma grinned as wide as she could and wiped at her suddenly wet eyes. She bumped fists with the guy who offered his desk right beside Regina's and she dropped down into the seat.

They snuck glances at one another all period, and when the bell rang, they dashed into the hall and hugged again.

"Oh my god!" Emma exclaimed, "I can't believe we're at the same school. This is crazy."

"I know," Regina agreed, unable to stop smiling. She reached up and pushed Emma's thick black glasses up her nose. "You're so grown up."

Emma laughed. "_You're _so grown up," she replied. "And I heard you got adopted. That's awesome. Do you like your family?"

"They're lovely, yes," Regina told her. "And you?"

Emma chewed her lip, her gaze darting to the ground. She shook her head. "Nah, just fosters."

Regina frowned and placed a hand on Emma's forearm. "Soon," she said, and Emma nodded.

"Yeah," the blonde sighed. "Soon."

* * *

><p>Once again, Regina and Emma became inseparable. They didn't have all the same classes but they sat together in all the ones they <em>did <em>share. They ate their lunches together and walked the halls together and visited one another at each other's lockers and rolled their eyes at boys who tried to flirt with them.

Regina's adoptive parents were strict about her having friends over and getting to bed at a proper time and all of that parent-y crap that Emma simultaneously loathed and longed for, but Emma never let that deter her from seeing Regina.

Nearly every night after her foster parents went to bed or passed out in the living room, Emma would sneak out and race across town to Regina's house. She would climb up the ivy-laced lattice on the side of the house and tap quietly on Regina's window until the brunette came to let her in, and Regina _always _let her in.

They spent their nights catching up, talking about their lives, doing homework, playing ridiculous games of twenty questions and truth or dare, and falling asleep huddled close together in Regina's bed with their noses brushing and their hands clasped under the comforter. Regina always woke Emma up before dawn and hugged her goodbye before watching her climb back down the lattice and sprint off across the yard, turning to grin and wave at Regina on the way.

One night, Regina laced her fingers through Emma's under the comforter and whispered, "I never stopped thinking of you."

"Me neither," Emma admitted.

"It's funny, isn't it?" Regina asked. "We go entire years without seeing one another, but when we somehow find each other again, it's like no time has passed at all."

"I know," Emma sighed. She squeezed Regina's hand. "It's just meant to be, I guess. Best friends until the end."

Regina smiled against her pillow. "Best friends," she whispered, though her heart had begun to stir with the desire for more.

* * *

><p>When Emma ran from the system at sixteen, Regina was terrified for her but determined to be Emma's greatest and only support. Emma had to leave school and she refused to go back to the orphanage or in any new foster homes. She roamed from place to place during the days, but at nights, she always came back to Regina.<p>

Regina would sneak her in through the window like always, let her use her bathroom to shower while Regina snuck down to the laundry room and washed her clothes. She snuck food from the kitchen to feed Emma, who had thinned down to the point that Regina could easily trace all her ribs with her fingers, but Regina still found her incredibly beautiful.

She held Emma each night and promised that as soon as they could, they would go somewhere together so that Emma wouldn't have to be afraid or on her own. Emma would just shrug and squeeze Regina closer.

"I'm okay," she would whisper. "I have you."

Then one night, Regina kissed her.

Emma was laughing about something one of their teachers had done the year before and her smile was bright and her eyes were full of life despite how difficult she had it, and Regina couldn't _not _kiss her. She shot through the breath of space between them and pressed her lips to Emma's.

Emma jerked at first but then melted into the contact, and when they parted, Regina looked at her shyly and whispered, "Say something."

Emma sighed and pressed her forehead to Regina's. "I love you."

Regina grinned against her lips and kissed her deeper.

When they woke before dawn, Emma crept down the lattice but glanced up at Regina when she was halfway down. "That wasn't our first kiss, you know."

Regina shook her head and smiled, leaning out of the window. "I remember."

"See?" Emma laughed. "I had game even when I was a toddler."

Regina rolled her eyes and waved goodbye.

* * *

><p>Regina helped Emma get her GED and then a job at the local grocery store. When her parents rented her a small two-bedroom apartment near the state university's campus, she moved Emma in with her right away, and of course Emma refused to live there for free and paid half the rent each month while she worked and took online classes.<p>

The second bedroom remained empty as they shared Regina's bed each night, their noses brushing and their hands clasped under the comforter.

"You were right," Regina whispered one night in her junior year of college.

Emma pressed kisses along her bare collarbone. "I'm always right," she joked and Regina pinched her. "Okay, okay," Emma said. "What was I right about?"

"Us," Regina told her. "When you said we were meant to be, you were right."

Emma sighed and pulled her closer. "I know."

Regina looked at her, eyes alight with affection, and stroked her fingers over Emma's cheek and lips. "I've loved you since I was seven years old," she whispered.

"I know," Emma repeated quietly. "Will you love me 'til your _seventy _years old?"

Regina smiled. "Always, I will," she promised. "Always."

It was in that moment that Emma realized the name of the orphanage had been right. When she arrived there, she was Almost Home, because that was the place that gave her Regina, and Regina was definitely home.


End file.
